


Silence Is Violence

by RyftWyrd



Category: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Genre: F/F, Lesbians, Swearing, Violence, What-if Scenario, possible later smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:21:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27344977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RyftWyrd/pseuds/RyftWyrd
Summary: Three times Helga thought about switching sides, and one time she acted on it.A what-if scenario where Milo does nothing, continues to help the bad guys, and Helga is forced to begrudgingly grow a conscience.TW: blood, graphic violence, swearing, and racism.
Relationships: Kida Nedakh/Helga Sinclair
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	Silence Is Violence

"This changes everything." Helga gazes out of the truck at the sprawling city, the elegantly dressed citizens. A living civilization was never in the equation.

"It changes nothing." Rourke retorts, greedy eyes fixed on the road ahead.

Helga voices agreement, but her mind is on the smile of the woman who first greeted their entourage of raiders. And her eyes are on the woman's flowing hair, the definition of her muscles, the tantalizing curve of her- her lips.

Helga scoffs, breaking the spell. The woman is an obstacle. This operation has to continue as planned.

####

The kind old lady who invites Helga and Rourke into her home has no clue what the two are planning to do to her civilization. Helga crushes the sliver of guilt. She can't afford to have second thoughts. She knew what this would be.

Except she didn't. There weren't supposed to be people down here. And this _has_ to change everything, no matter what Rourke says. He's never been one to care for people who get in his way, and that's assuming he even thinks of the Atlanteans as people.

Helga thanks the woman after dinner, speaking words she heard Milo use. The woman lights up and corrects her pronunciation. Helga scoffs and flips her braid as she storms out of the house, following Rourke to the vans.

"What the hell are you doing, Lieutenant?" He rounds on her with a harsh backhand.

She staggers back, spitting furiously. "I'm trying to earn their trust, Commander! Unless you want them to suspect your intentions of genocide, I suggest you follow my lead."

Rourke laughs, a rich and menacing sound, his teeth bared in an hungry grin. "Oh, I think we're safe in that regard. Or haven't you noticed? These creatures are all blind fools."

Helga wipes the blood from her cheek and glares at the nearest giant tower. She doesn't respond.

####

Milo Thatch surfaces from the lake with a gasp, then lets it out sharply at the sight before him. Helga almost feels sorry for him. Almost. She notices the spot of light below the water moving and approaching the shore. It must be the princess. Kidagakesh. _Kida._ A beautiful name for a beautiful woman. Too bad she's going to die.

Kida emerges without a single ripple and takes down five of the soldiers before Milo is threatened and she allows herself to be captured. Helga draws her pistol and takes Kida by the arm, smirking to hide the flutter of her pulse. The woman is so much stronger than she expected. She can feel the firm muscle beneath Kida's skin, all her restrained power. Kida could easily break every bone in Helga's body. And it might be the guilt talking, or perhaps Helga is hopelessly lost to depravity, but she would welcome that.

Milo surprises everyone, save Rourke, when he agrees to help them. He claims he's doing it because this way he can help more people, and there's no chance he has against Rourke anyway, but Helga sees the disguised delight behind his petulance. She scowls at the fallen pillar. Seems someone cares a bit more for fame and recognition than human lives, no matter how old and unknown. But she's in no place to talk. At least she's no hypocrite.

As Miles explains to everyone what he plans to do, Helga can feel Kida's angry despair as the tension in her muscles goes limp. "Are you going to faint, princess?" Her words come out acidic and biting.

Kida glares at her. "Don't you bastards have souls?"

Rourke snarls at Helga to shut Kida up, and Helga realizes she can't pretend to like this plan any longer.

@@@@

Helga panics. She didn't expect Rourke to punch the old king in the gut. She didn't expect him to figure out the riddle so quickly, simple as it was. And she definitely didn't expect the Atlanteans' lifeforce to steal Kida from her arms and turn her into a naked crystal lady. She reaches out for Kida as the glowing woman steps onto the shore, only flinching back when Milo suggests it's not the best idea.

"How the hell are we supposed to transport her?" Helga points out the obvious flaw in the plan, hoping against hope that it's the wrench in the gears.

"Easy, Lieutenant. We brought a cage." Rourke grins back maliciously, as though he can read her mind.

Helga scoffs. She follows Kida back to the surface in sullen silence as Rourke gloats. Milo shoots a glare at her, and she scowls back. "Happy, linguist? You'll get your scholarship, now, won't you."

"This- this isn't right." Milo mutters.

"Then do something about it." Helga snaps. "Or don't, and take your riches and fame without complaining." Rourke offered her a percentage of the earnings, after all. But Rourke has never liked sharing.

As the metal cage is closed around Kida, a sharp pang shivers through Helga's chest. Kida looks into her eyes and forms words with her crystalline lips. _Please_. _Protect them_.

"Damn it." Helga snarls. "Damn it all. Audrey!"

Audrey's head snaps up from where she'd been moping in the truck. "Yeah, boss?"

"Cut the rope."

Audrey freezes, glancing at Rourke, who's busy gloating over his successful persuasion of Miles. The poor kid sags, defeated, yet he's not going to risk his life or livelihood by trying to be a hero. He doesn't have it in him.

Helga's never been the heroic type, either, but for completely different reasons. She draws her gun and fires over Rourke's head. He staggers and spins, bellowing with rage. "What the _fuck_ are you doing??"

"That's a warning shot, Commander. Release the princess or I'll put a hole through your temple next."

"Lieutenant, stand down." Rourke storms forward. "Soldiers, disarm her! Hell, kill the bitch for all I care!"

Helga becomes painfully aware of the people gathered behind her. Innocent civilians. She raises her hands and drops the gun. "Don't shoot." Her lips curl in an untameable smirk.

When the shot fires, she doesn't have time to hear it. It just punches through her chest and explodes in a fiery wall of pain as she collapses to the ground. Kida's eyes stare down at her. Kida's eyes blaze with fury. Kida...

A blinding white light slips the bullet from her body and knits the flesh back together. Helga comes to with a violent scream, but Kida is gone, and the Atlanteans stand around her, watching the bridge burn.

@@@@

Helga later learns that everyone died in the explosion, as the bombs went off too early. Audrey and Joshua Sweet were the only ones left behind, besides herself. Kida effortlessly escaped her metal prison before the magma consumed everything, and she now burns in the sky like a miniature sun. The next-in-line to the throne is a cousin of the king, Amaru, and he isn't exactly delighted by the presence of three foreigners who helped disrupt his society and kill his king and princess. Helga doesn't blame him. She isn't exactly delighted by her presence here, either. But King Amaru doesn't execute the three survivors. Not immediately.

Joshua gets the lightest sentence, as he was the first to rebel and actually tried to help save the king's life. He's made the court doctor. Not a bad position. And after he saves Amaru's life from a scorpion bite, he's given more trust and leeway. 

Audrey is set to the task of figuring out how to work the ancient airships. She manages to round up a gang of kids who are dozens of years older than her to help her take the vehicles apart and rebuild them. Eventually, through trial and error, they figure out how to fly the bastards.

Helga should probably think that she has the worst of it, having been sent out to clean each and every massive robot of debris and foliage. But the views are fantastic. She gazes up at Kida and wonders whether Kida is looking down at her. Would Kida be pleased? Or disappointed? After all, something must still be endangering the Atlanteans, or Kida would have come back. _Protect them_.

####

Two weeks from the destruction of the bridge, Helga is on top of a robot and scanning the edge of the world when she sees Rourke sitting on an outcrop of rock, Milo alongside him. She doesn't have her gun, and she doesn't have a crystal, but she does have strong arms and legs.

She confronts them alone, stealing a vehicle from Audrey with the help of a kid whose name she misses in the wind of her flight. She doesn't want to know it, anyway. Deniability for when she inevitably gets in trouble for stealing a crystal and trying to flee. She doesn't want to drag her accomplice down with her.

Helga lands in the ocean and swims to the outcrop, emerging behind Rourke and Milo. The two are both winded, ragged, and bloody. Anger pulses in Helga's bones as she strides forward and kicks Rourke viciously in the face. He splutters and coughs up more blood. His legs are burnt from the knee down. Milo has fared worse.

"The hell were you thinking?" Helga rages. "There's people on this goddamn island! There's a fucking society here, and you'd damn them all!"

"Th-they would have died soon anyway." Miles protests weakly. "Do- do you know how old most of them are?"

"Yeah." Helga smirks furiously down at him and steps on his solar plexus. He whimpers.

"Don't be so goddamn high and mighty, Lieutenant." Rourke growls. "You were just as ready as I was, so what changed?"

Helga can't help a glance up at her sun. "Maybe I never liked your goddamn plan, or your goddamn face."

Rourke grabs her leg. "Listen, get us out of here and I'll cut you in on the next mission down here."

Helga bares her teeth and snatches Miles's precious book from his brittle claws. "What mission? There never was one. And now, there never will be again." She kicks Rourke's body over the edge and into the magma far below.

Miles grabs her ankle desperately and climbs her leg. "Please, my book, I have to, I have to show the council, Professor Harcourt, he'll listen to me-" He screams. Helga kicks him in the face. His jaw gives way and his scream turns to gurgling. He twists and unbalances her. And she allows herself to fall into the magma beside Miles.

The blanket of heat and vicious pain never comes. A deafening light grabs her by the crystal and holds her in comforting arms, soothing her, wiping away her steaming tears. She's lifted from the lava towards her sun. Towards Kida.

And then she's set down on the ground, and she collapses on shaky legs as Audrey runs up to her with shouts of angry worry. But Helga only has eyes for her sun as the light coalesces on the center of the carvings on the open space. And Kida falls slowly, gently, down.

Helga forces herself to stand up. She staggers over and softens Kida's fall as the light releases her. Kida's eyes stare out into the distance, blind and glowing and dripping with stars. "Sorry, princess. I failed." 


End file.
